According to the USA’s National Counterterrorism Centre, there were 12,533 terrorist murders in the world in 2011 (mainly in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia). That same year there were between 300,000 and 2,200,000 work-related deaths around the world. Despite this extraordinary carnage, national governments hardly bother to collect the statistics.
On the face of it, health and safety is a deadly dull topic. So it is surprising that newspapers and politicians get so excited about the subject. They love tut-tutting at stupid, over-protective rules. Teachers find seven-page forms to be filled out when taking students on trips. Builders moan at having to erect expensive scaffolding instead of popping up a ladder. MPs queue up to complain in parliament about the dead hand of ‘elf ’n safety’ bureaucracy holding back our entrepreneurs. These statements are made in the context of a society that believes that health and safety is not a problem in today’s world.
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